Page 74 of Can you take it?

“Nothing,” I said and she went back to eating as soon as everyone sat down again. Everyone but me. I was too anxious.

A small place card with intricate gold details sat in the middle, raised on a tiny stand.

Tier Five: ENVY

I pointed, then nodded. “We are in Envy.”

Anna continued to eat, though I could tell she was chewing cautiously, still not feeling quite right about it. I walked around the room, guarding the others. They had hardly eaten at all when another chime sounded. Walter, in Anna’s body, jumped and moved toward me before remembering that Eletha was in my body.

“Fuck…” Walter muttered.

“I’m hangry,” Eletha grumbled in my body. I was too, but I wasn’t about to eat this food.

Anna, in Walter’s body screamed as a headless skeleton walked into the room, startling us. Several more headless skeletons walked in behind it. In unison, like synchronized swimmers, the bodies held an arm out, gesturing us to go through the doorway we had just walked in through only moments ago.

When no one moved, one of the skeletons, apparently frustrated with Bexley’s lack of at least standing from the table, like the rest of us, stood behind him. When Bexley waved it off, the skeleton reached out a bony hand and gripped the back of Bexley’s neck, lifting him up. We all gasped.

That was all we needed to know: these were not friendly servant skeletons, though were there ever?

I took the lead, with Anna in Walter’s body right behind me. The others followed behind her as we walked into an empty ballroom—or at least what we thought was empty. It looked like the ballroom of at least ten other castles I’d been in. Nothing odd or out of the ordinary. Once you saw one ballroom, you’d seen them all. This was no different. Similar styles of landscape paintings and tapestries lined the walls beneath intricate white wainscoting. It was traditional for the fae. So far, aside from the skeletons, nothing was out of the ordinary— which was extremely, well, out of the ordinary for the tiers.

The music, which hadn’t stopped, began to grow louder. I wasn’t sure where it came from. I could see no orchestra. As if they had walked through the walls, a small army of headless skeletons appeared, their bones clacking on the marble floor.

Shivers gripped my spine, and my heart raced. What were they about to do? What was about to happen?

Envy…Envy… The thought circled my mind, but I couldn’t think fast enough to form a defense. I glanced at the others, only to realize I seemed to be the only one truly startled by the skeletons. I took a breath, but it did little to calm me. Quickly, I counted—fifteen headless skeletons in the ballroom with us. Eletha, in my body, snorted when a headless skeleton bowed gracefully before her. “They want us to dance,” she said, laughing.

“It’s been so long since we’ve had a dance,” Walter in Anna’s body said to Eletha in my body.

“Am I the only one freaking out right now?” I asked.

A familiar waltz began to play from the invisible orchestra, and the skeletons quickly grabbed us as their partners, taking the lead on the dance floor. I peeked back at the others. Anna and Eletha were laughing.

“You guys have spent far too much time in the Underworld,” I muttered. “Okay, thank you,” I said, raising my hand. “I’m not much of a dancer, especially if my partner is headless.” I tried to move to the side, but the skeleton refused to take no for an answer. It gripped my palm so hard that it dented my skin and whirled me around, sending a spin of butterflies in my stomach.

“Okay,” I said, “this is a very odd punishment.”

“It won’t let me stop!” Anna called, her voice filled with a hint of worry that sent me into overdrive. I tried to break free from my skeletal partner to go to her, but its bony hands were quick and nimble, refusing to let me go.

“Anna, are you okay?” I called. “I can’t get to you.”

“I’m okay,” she replied, though her voice was higher-pitched than normal. “It’s just not letting me stop.”

“Same,” called the others.

In the whirlwind of it all, I realized I didn’t hear Bexley, nor could I find him.

“I told you, no means no!” I gripped the skeleton’s hands as hard as I could and tried to shove it away. I wasn’t sure how a headless skeleton could grow angry, but somehow, even without a face, I could sense its fury. “Ah!” I exclaimed as it gripped me tighter, flinging me around until my head snapped back painfully. “Fuck!”

“Now you know how us ladies feel!” Eletha shouted.

On top of it all, Eletha’s outfit was completely ridiculous. Skintight pants cut off the circulation to my ankles, and heeled boots made me struggle to keep my balance with each step. Every move I made, my boobs and hips ended up in the way of trying to fend the thing off.

Eletha, in my body, called from across the room. “How do you do this? How do you walk around with legs this long? I keep hitting myself in the dick,” she added, and I couldn’t help but snort with laughter. The scene playing out was as eerie and creepy as it was funny.

A sharp cracking sound caught my attention. Walter, in Anna’s body, had somehow snapped a finger off his partner and flung it to the floor. “I said I don’t want to dance!” Walter shouted.

The finger slid back to the skeleton and reattached itself. “Okay…” Walter said. “Eletha, Anna, you guys have to do something in our bodies! In your bodies, we’re too weak to fight much!”